Considering that the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world, it shouldn’t be hard to miss. Nevertheless, at first glance, you might not see the it in the photograph on the right -and instead mistake it for more fairy lights on a decorated palm tree... Why did I photograph the Burj Khalifa and a fairy-lit palm tree together -and why are they almost merging?
Photographing the palm and Burj Khalifa together symbolises, for me, the huge amount of progress and modernisation that has occurred in Dubai since my childhood. When I was a child in the 80's in Dubai, most buildings were low rise -not significantly higher than palm trees and sometimes lower (most people I knew lived in bungalows or perhaps houses with one upper floor) -meanwhile the Burj Khalifa, as the tallest building in the world, is the ultimate contrast! (When I was growing up the Trade Centre was the tallest building around at 149 metres -now, however, it is dwarfed by numerous modern high rises -much as this palm tree is by the Burj Khalifa). |